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‘His character has been smeared’ – Brokenshire defends Scruton’s appointment

Housing secretary James Brokenshire has robustly defended Roger Scruton as the ‘right man for the job’ amid calls for him to be sacked from his new role as chair of the government’s beauty watchdog

The writer and philosopher has been at the centre of a media storm over a number of controversial opinions he has made, including that Islamophobia is a ’propaganda word’ and that homosexuality is ‘not normal.’

Scruton also claimed in a public speech in 2005 that there was no such crime as date rape and described sexual harassment as merely ‘sexual advances made by the unattractive’.

He has also faced criticism over comments he made about philanthropist George Soros in a 2014 lecture, where he said: ‘Many of the Budapest intelligentsia are Jewish, and form part of the extensive networks around the Soros empire.’

Shadow housing secretary Andrew Gwynne, who tabled an urgent question in the Commons over Scruton’s appointment to the Building Better, Building Beautiful commission, said his comments were ‘unacceptable’.

He added: ‘If we are going to have a society which welcomes free speech, we should also hold those people to account for what they use this privilege to say.’

But Brokenshire robustly defended Scruton, describing him as a ‘global authority on aesthetics’ and ‘a public intellectual of renown’. He said Scruton’s comments had been taken out of context.

‘I have to say it saddens me that someone who has done so much to champion freedom of speech and freedom of expression should be subject to misinformed ill-judged and very personal attacks of the kind we have seen over the last few days,’ he said.

‘It saddens me that his views have been so misrepresented, and his character has been smeared.’

📺WATCH: This afternoon the Speaker granted me an Urgent Question about the appointment of Sir Roger Scruton to become the Government’s Planning and Design Tsar.

Tory MPs defended his views because Sir Roger is an ‘intellectual’. I don’t think that remotely makes it ok. pic.twitter.com/0XnlmV2jUF

But another Tory former minister, Ed Vaizey, echoed concern raised by architects at the new commission’s emphasis on ‘beautiful’ buildings.

While he defended Scruton’s character, he added: ‘I don’t want him to lead a commission that simply advocates for Neo-Georgian pastiche as a definition of beauty, and I hope the commission will include contemporary architects, women architects and people from BAME backgrounds as well,’ he said.

However former Tory transport minister John Hayes, known for his distaste of contemporary architecture, was overjoyed at the traditionalist’s appointment. ‘Scruton will bring a lively, imaginative, well-researched report which will inform all of our thinking and, my god, we need it after years of dull egalitarian Modernism.’

In a statement last week, Scruton said he was ‘offended and hurt’ by suggestions that he was any way antisemitic or Islamophobic, insisting ‘nothing could be further than the truth’.

He said: ‘If people actually read my comments regarding the interplay between George Soros and Hungary, they will realise they are not in any way anti-Semitic, indeed quite the opposite.

‘My statements on Islamic states points only to the failure of these states, which is a fact.’

Roger Scruton, chair of the government’s new Building Better, Building Beautiful commission , has attacked contemporary architecture in a provocative speech calling for a return to traditional design based on the Classical orders

Readers' comments (3)

Many moons ago I had the pleasure of spending a few days with Roger Scruton, at a 21st Century Trust's seminar. I enjoyed his sharp mind, and indeed also his sharp tongue. I did not enjoy some of his views.
As architecture is about space, light, joy and social and environmental responsibility, and not about 'beauty' or styles', it is my view that a neutral advocate would serve us better.

To describe Roger Scruton as 'a global authority on aesthetics' is akin to describing Jacob Rees-Mogg as an representing all that's noble in politics - or (stretching the point to its limits) Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson as 'a man of the people'.

Louis Kahn:
“A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable.”
No space for beauty czars in this process...

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